Tag: Wizard island

Merriam Point and Wizard Island (Crater Lake NP) – 08/04/2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 8, 2024
1 Comment on Merriam Point and Wizard Island (Crater Lake NP) – 08/04/2024

When we decided to try and hike all 100 featured hikes in a single edition of each of the five areas covered in William L. Sullivan’s 100 Hikes books (post) we decided that the criteria for being able to check off a hike was doing (or attempting to do) at least a portion of the hike. Sullivan often provides multiple options for each featured hike with some options being 20+ mile one-way trips or nearly 30-mile loops. Doing every option in their entirety just wasn’t feasible when you also factor in having to deal with trail closures due to fires, damage, or restricted access.

In 2023 we completed the southern Oregon & northern California area (post), but missed out on a portion of three hikes in Crater Lake National Park. On Saturday we’d finished up two of the hikes, The Pinnacles and Lady of the Woods (post). The third hike that we’d been unable to do in its entirety was on Wizard Island which requires taking a boat from Cleetwood Cove (post). The boats did not operate in 2023, an issue caused by the previous contracted concessionaire, so we were only able to hike down to the docks at the cove on that trip.

We reserved tickets ahead of time for the Wizard Island shuttle which is a 15-minute boat ride from Cleetwood Cove to Wizard Island. There were two other tours available, one a trip around the lake, and the other stops at Wizard Island on its way around the lake. Had we not needed to get home the same day we would have opted for the latter, but a tour around the lake would need to wait for another time. We nearly blew the whole thing though.

Somehow we got it into our heads that our shuttle left Cleetwood Cove at 12:30pm. We slept in and left our room so that we’d arrive at Beckie’s Cafe in Union Creek when it opened at 8am. After eating, and buying a whole blackberry pie to share with my parents, we made our way to the park and stopped at several viewpoints along the rim to admire the views. The overcast and smokey skies from the day before had given way to big fluffy white clouds and relatively blue sky.
Llao Rock and Wizard Island

The docks on Wizard Island.

The views were so good even the golden-mantled ground squirrels were taking them in.

Mt. McLoughlin (post) and Union Peak (post).

Cassin’s finches

Mount Scott (post) across the lake.

Wizard Island’s Fumarole Bay

The Watchman (post)

Mt. Bailey on the left and Mt. Thielsen (post) on the right. You can’t really make it out in the photo but with the naked eye we could see Diamond Peak (post) in between the two in the distance.

Smoke from the Middle Fork Fire burning inside the park boundary.

Fire information at one of the viewpoints.

At this pull out we got out and hiked a little of the Rim Trail. I decided to just continue on to Merriam Point while Heather was nice enough to drive the car down and meet me.

Western pasqueflower seed heads.

Silvery raillardella

Hillman Peak (post)

The Watchman and Hillman Peak

Dwarf lupine

We were intentionally taking our time so we wouldn’t arrive way too early for our boat tour. We had been targeting 11am to give us an hour and a half but wound up arriving a little before 10:30. That wound up being a good thing because when we went to check in we noticed that there were two shuttle times listed, 9am and 11:30. After some confusion with our tickets, Heather inadvertently pulled up our Wallow Lake Tram (post) tickets from 7/26 (issued by the same online company Fareharbor), the attendant was able to find our reservation. It had been for the 9am shuttle and there was never a 12:30 shuttle. We’d messed up pretty good. The young man was very understanding and let us know that they still had three openings on the 11:30 shuttle and that he could move us to two of those spots. We were very thankful and quickly headed down the 1.1-mile Cleetwood Cove Trail to the check in at the dock there.

From left to right: Dutton Cliff, Applegate Peak, and Garfield Peak (post).

Our shuttle arriving at the docks below.

We checked in and got our boarding instruction then spent some time watching people jump into the lake from the rocks.

When it was time we boarded the boat which zipped us over to the island.

The boat traveled at about 35mph so I didn’t have too many chances to take photos. The exception was when we had to briefly circle back to retrieve someone’s hat that had flown off into the lake.

Nearing the island.

There are two short trails on the island, one leads to Fumarole Bay and the other to the top of Wizard Island’s cone. Most of the people in our group headed for the cone with a few heading to the bay to either fish or swim. We were also going to head up the cone first and had decided to split up and do our own thing then meet back up at the docks later.
The trails shared tread for the first tenth of a mile. (Toilets were to the right.)

In the line heading up to the cone.

Part of the reason we’d decided to hike our own hikes is because I have a slight competitive streak and tend to speed up when there are people ahead of us. It wasn’t long before I’d passed most of the other hikers and was just following a pair of younger guys from San Diego.

Looking up the cone.

The Watchman and Hillman Peak from the trail.

These two were setting a crisp pace and the only reason I was able to keep up was because they would occasionally stop for pictures and to admire the views.

Mount Scott

The trail was well graded keeping the 750′ climb from ever feeling too steep.

Prince’s pine

Buckwheat

Paintbrush

I managed to pass the Sandiegans shortly below the summit while they were taking a few more photos. Just before the summit a hiker from a different tour passed me as she was descending and mentioned that there wasn’t anyone left at the summit.
The summit crater also known as the Witches Cauldron.

A 0.3-mile loop circles the crater so I headed clockwise around the loop. The pair from San Diego caught up while I was taking photos and asked if I could take one of them before continuing on.
Mt. Scott from the loop.

Llao Rock

Dutton Cliff, Applegate Peak, and Garfield Peak

Crater Lake lodge on the rim to the right of Garfield Peak.

Crater Lake lodge.

Hikers across the crater starting the loop.

Looking down toward the dock area.

The Watchman and Hillman Peak.

Looking toward Cleetwood Cove.

Fumarole Bay is to the left of lava flow.

Pool in the lava flow.

After completing the loop I headed down for the Fumarole Bay Trail.

Dwarf alpinegold

Another boat tour heading around the island.

I had passed Heather on her way up and we spoke for a moment before going our separate ways.

Heading toward Fumarole Bay.

It’s approximately a half mile to Fumarole Bay on a very rocky trail due to it being in a lava flow.

The Watchman from the trail.

Fumarole Bay. Note the person fishing on the rocks to the right.

Fumarole Bay

Stream flowing into Crater Lake.

Hillman Peak

The trail continued around the bay for almost another half mile.

Bleeding heart

The Watchman

I believe this may be Felt-leaf everlasting.

An even fainter, rockier, trail continued beyond the sign marking the end of the maintained trail. I followed it for just a bit before losing it in the lava where I decided to turn around.

I made my way back around the bay and returned to the dock where I found Heather soaking her feet in the water.

Heather below at the edge of the lake. She had opted not to visit the bay.

I joined Heather as we waited for our return shuttle. In the meantime she took a quick dip in the lake to cool off.

Here comes our ride.

Once they herded everyone back to the dock we boarded the boat and rode back to Cleetwood Cove.
Arriving back at the cove.

We split up again on our way up the busy Cleetwood Cove Trail.

It got a little hazier as the day went on.

I was glad to make it back to the parking area where I changed into cooler clothes before using the restroom.

I ran into Heather as I came out of the restrooms so we walked back to the car together and prepared for our drive home. My Wizard Island hike came to 6.6 miles including 2.2 miles to and from Cleetwood Cove. Total elevation gain was a little over 1450′. Seven hundred of that was up from Cleetwood Cove which was steeper in sections than anything on Wizard Island had been.
Track including the boat rides.

My Wizard Island track.

It had been a beautiful day and a lot of fun to see the lake and surrounding peaks from the island. The smoke had somehow stayed away and so had the thunderstorms. Unfortunately storms did hit other parts of the Cascades along with central and eastern Oregon igniting more wildfires. We hit heavy smoke on our drive home between Odell Lake and Oakridge reminding us of just how bad this fire season has been. A big thank you to all the firefighters working hard to try and minimize the damage. Hopefully conditions will improve sooner rather than later. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Merriam Point and Wizard Island

Tags Beckie's Cafe, Cleetwood Cove, Crater Lake, Crater Lake National Park, Furmarole Bay, Govenor's Bay, hiking, Merriam Point, Mount Scott, Oregon, the watchman, Witches Cauldron, Wizard island, Wizard Island shuttle

Crater Lake Area High Cascades Hiking Oregon Trip report

Cleetwood Cove – 08/01/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 6, 2023
3 Comments on Cleetwood Cove – 08/01/2023

For our last morning in Crater Lake National Park we had one final stop planned before heading home. A hike down the Cleetwood Cove Trail to the lakeshore. The 1.1-mile trail is the only one in the park that takes you down to the water which we thought was a fitting way to end our trip.
Sunrise behind Llao Rock on the way to the trailhead.

Crater Lake at sunrise.

Mt. Bailey, Diamond Peak, and Mt. Thielsen behind Red Cone.

Cowhorn Mountain (post), Maiden Peak (post), the Three Sisters, and Mt. Thielsen.

We were the first car at the large parking area along East Rim Drive.

When we’d originally planned it we were going to be taking a boat tour (or at least a shuttle) over to Wizard Island to hike to the top of that cinder cone, but the boat tours weren’t open yet this year.

We crossed East Rim Drive and started down the trail which losses 700′ via a series of switchbacks.
Mt. Scott (post)

Dutton Cliffs, Sun Notch (post), Applegate Peak and Garfield Peak (post)

Looking down at the turnaround point.

Wouldn’t want a rock like this to come down on you.

Breakfast time.

There were “no stopping” signs at areas where the danger of rock fall was the greatest.

One of the tour boats.

Looking back at the dock area.

We took a break at the bottom enjoying the view and watching fish jump while we prepared to make the climb back up.
Couldn’t get an actual fish in a photo but I barely missed this one.

We did visit the lakeshore and touch the water before heading back up.

The dock at Cleetwood Cove.

It was a stiff hike back up to the parking area. We had had the lake to ourselves but were now passing the occasional hiker and fisherman on their way down the trail.
Not a hiker or fisherman.

Llao Rock from East Rim Drive.

We were back at the car before 8am and on our way back to Salem. It had been a wonderful trip. The weather had been good, the skies not too smokey, and the scenery spectacular. It was a bit of a bummer to have missed out on Wizard Island, Lady of the Woods and The Pinnacles trail due to the closures but that just gives us an excuse to return. In fact the closure didn’t impact our ability to check the featured hikes off our to-do list. We have now hiked at least part of 92 out of the 100 Southern Oregon/Northern California hikes with the remaining eight planned for later this year (post). Happy Trails!

Flickr: Cleetwood Cove

Tags Cleetwood Cove, Crater Lake, Crater Lake National Park, Garfield Peak, hiking, Oregon, Wizard island

Crater Lake Area High Cascades Hiking Oregon Trip report

Discovery Point and Lightning Spring – 09/19/2022

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date September 23, 2022
1 Comment on Discovery Point and Lightning Spring – 09/19/2022

The longest planned hike of our Southern Oregon trip also promised to be the most scenic with nearly two and a half miles being along the rim of Crater Lake. After a couple of days of rain showers (and one night of thunderstorms) Monday was forecast to be partly sunny albeit with a 40% chance of showers. We were hoping for clear views of the lake with just enough clouds to make the sky interesting. We had picked up a 7-day pass on Saturday when we’d driven through Crater Lake National Park and now reentered the Park from Highway 62 to the south and parked near the Rim Village Gift Shop and Cafe.

Our plan was to hike the Discovery Point and Lightning Spring loop described by Sullivan in his “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Southern Oregon & Northern California” (edition 4.2 hike #21). He describes hiking the route counter-clockwise hiking along the rim of the caldera to Discovery Point first but we opted instead for a clockwise loop for two reasons. First was that we wanted to be hiking the rim later in the day when the Sun would hopefully be directly overhead instead of across the lake to the east. The second reason was because Sullivan described the final section of the Dutton Creek Trail as “climbing more seriously…to your car”. Our thought was that it might be more enjoyable to be going down that stretch rather than up.

Before starting the loop we passed by the Gift Shop to check out the morning view of the lake.

Mt. Scott (post) with a bit of a lenticular cloud.

Raven making a landing atop a mountain hemlock.

The Watchman (post), Hillman Peak, and Llao Rock along the western side of the rim.

The view was amazing and aside from the ravens we were about the only people around this early. We got distracted enough by the views that we didn’t catch that the Dutton Creek Trail was located a bit downhill along the West Rim Road and we set off on the Rim Trail toward the Discovery Point Trailhead.

In our defense the topo map on our GPS showed a connector trail further along the Rim Trail (that trail no longer exists) but we didn’t catch our mistake until we’d gone nearly a quarter mile. We turned around and hiked back to the entrance road to Rim Village and hiked downhill to the signed Dutton Creek Trail.
It was by far the most scenic mistake we’ve made while hiking.

Wizard Island and Llao Rock

Mount Scott

We joked that views had been so good maybe we should just end the hike now.

A short distance down the Dutton Creek Trail we came face to face with a pair of bucks.

It was quite the start to the hike and we wondered how anything during the remainder of the hike could top the beginning. We followed the Dutton Creek trail a total of 2.4 miles to the Pacific Crest Trail. The upper portion had indeed been fairly steep before leveling out quite a bit. The forest along the trail was very nice and the trail was in excellent shape.

Dutton Creek was dry.

Blue sky ahead.

Not much left for flowers, this could be a Crater Lake collomia although it’s a little late in the season.

Castle Creek still had some water flowing.

We spotted several piles of hail, possibly from the severe thunderstorms that had been forecast for Saturday night?

Arriving at the PCT.

We turned right on the PCT and followed it for 4.4 fairly level miles to the Lightning Springs Trail. Sullivan described this section of trail as relatively dull but there was enough variety in the scenery to make it enjoyable if not remarkable.

The campsite at the junction was closed due to hazard trees.

Recrossing Castle Creek.

The PCT appeared to be following an old road bed through the park.

Dropping down to Trapper Creek.

PCT crossing of Trapper Creek.

We saw one other deer, a doe in the trail, and otherwise it was a lot of chipmunks and squirrels along with numerous birds.
A red-breasted nuthatch that was toying with me as I tried to get a photo.

Canada jay (grey jay)
Blue sky to the north ahead.

Some blue sky south too with a glimpse of Union Peak (post).

Union Peak

Entering the 2006 Bybee Complex fire scar.

The Watchman. The lookout tower on top was in a cloud after having been clearly visible from rim earlier. We wondered what that might mean for our views when we finally made it back to the rim.

Chipmunk checking us out.

Coneflower remains

Another creek crossing.

Red crossbills at the creek crossing.

There were some pretty ominous looking clouds behind us but no showers yet.

Several white crowned sparrows and at least one junco. We could also hear chickadee calls but I couldn’t find one in this capture.

Despite the ugly clouds behind us there was almost always blue sky ahead.

North Fork Castle Creek

Approaching the junction with the Lightning Springs Trail.

We turned onto the Lightning Springs Trail and headed for the clouds above The Watchman.

This trail climbed gradually along a ridge at the edge of a 2016 fire scar.

Townsend’s solitaire

Union Peak had been swallowed by clouds.

The Watchman with a cloud still hanging on.

Hawk

The base of Union Peak with lots of blue sky around.

A brief stint in full sunlight.

Robin

We were supposed to pass below a small waterfall after 2.4 miles along Lightning Creek but this late in the Summer it was dry.

The trail continued to climb beyond the dry fall arriving at Lightning Springs after another 0.8 miles.
Union Peak nearly free of clouds.

The Watchman still not free.

Mountain bluebird

We detoured a short distance down the trail to Lightning Springs Camp to check out the springs which were not dry.

After visiting the springs we continued another 0.8 miles to West Rim Drive and crossed over to the Rim Trail.

Full view of Union Peak.

And finally a full view of The Watchman.

Conditions were changing quickly and now there was blue sky above The Watchman.

West Rim Drive ahead with the lower portion of Mt. McLoughlin (post) in between the trees to the right.

Mt. McLoughlin

This squirrel put its cone down in case I had something better for it, but we don’t feed the wild animals per Park rules (and Leave No Trace Principles).

We followed the Rim Trail for 2.4 miles back to Rim Village passing Discovery Point at the 1.1 mile mark. The views were spectacular resulting in many, many photos for which we don’t feel the least bit sorry about.

Wizard Island’s cone

Llao Rock

Dock along Wizard Island

The Watchman and Hillman Peak

Garfield Peak to the left with Union Peak to the far right.

Phantom Ship

Mount Scott

Clark’s nutcracker

That blue though!

Golden-mantled ground squirrel

Back to where we’d been that morning.

Including our wandering around Rim Village and going the wrong way to start our hike came to 14.4 miles with 2000′ of cumulative elevation gain.

I don’t think we could have asked for better conditions. It only sprinkled for one brief moment and the amount as well as type of clouds added to the beauty instead of hiding it. Add in temperatures that didn’t get much over 50 degrees if that and it was about a perfect day for a hike. We changed our shoes and socks then grabbed lunch in the cafe and did some shopping in the gift shop before heading back to Shady Cove. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Discovery Point and Lightning Spring